Hating Breitbart

Superbly done on a superb human being. It captured the heroism and spirit and joy of Breitbart who died too young. The filming is well done, as are the transitions.

Inspiring to Americans to be aware, carry on and fight the good fight.

Andrew was so brave and so passionate and loved this country well. He never hesitated to tell the truth and often this cost him dearly.

The joy and passion he inspired in others is captured in the film as you will see when you have the opportunity to see this.

His wife and children must be very proud of him, even as they mourn his loss and carry on his work.

Very insightful and entertaining documentary by Andrew Marcus. Gives a first hand look at Andrew Breitbart and his fight against the media for one thing: the truth. It would be pretty hard to discount the man and his work after watching this, but it's entertaining no matter who you agree with. Definitely worth the time. Marcus wisely chooses not use the typical narrative that most documentaries use and he instead chooses to show Andrew when he was at his most energetic and jocular. He examines three major fights Andrew had with the media and pretty much tells them with more objectivity than any major network has. But, above all, this is just an incredibly entertaining and energetic film. Great filmmaking. Everyone should see this movie.

It hardly needs to be said that this "documentary" is just the right-wing infotainment industry giving itself another propaganda hand job.

It does its best to ignore the fact that Breitbart was guilty of the very thing he claimed to be trying to root out: extreme media bias; says nothing about his penchant for ridiculous conspiracy theories or the many times he and his stooge James O'Keefe were caught lying or falsifying evidence against the left, much less how the very last moments of his life were were spent trying to fabricate evidence that the Occupy Wall Street protesters were all rapists.

Instead, the thesis is all about how Andrew Breitbart did not deserve to be hated. Which is about as accurate as their decision to call the Sarah Palin documentary "Undefeated." Don't indulge your curiosity by watching this movie. Look at what he actually said, did, and stood for on Wikipedia instead, and you'll be incredibly glad Andrew Breitbart is dead too.

If you don't know Andrew Breitbart and why he's so controversial you'll find out why in the first few minutes of Andrew Marcus's Hating Breitbart, a breakneck documentary that profiles the left-wing whistleblower and documents just a few of the number of cases he took on in his career. The film begins by addressing the controversy that surrounded the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) when two conservative activists secretly filmed themselves posing as a prostitute and a pimp and discovering the organization offers advice on how to evade paying taxes and keep their prostitution career discreet. From there on out, we see just how big of an impact Breitbart had on exposing organizational lies and media bias through the use of his own tactics using the "new media," such as cell phones, computers, and video cameras.

Some will call Breitbart blatantly hypocritical for addressing and slandering the apparent media bias in the news and then opening up several websites with larger-than-life names boasting an unmissable conservative bias. I must admit the truth and say this is precisely what I thought going in. But the more time you see Breitbart on screen and the more time you listen to his lectures, it becomes clear that himself, personally, having a bias isn't contradictory to his philosophy at all. He despises the idea that the "left wing" media proclaims to be balanced and objective when they hold a bias that fits their agenda. Breitbart's several websites holding a conservative bias is the main point of the argument; he has a bias and he admits to it.

Hating Breitbart takes a rather questionable look at the title-figure because instead of giving a biographical take on the man, they judge him solely on his methods of activism, his fans and detractors, and his fiery debates held with those he doesn't agree with photographed and observed by a countless slew of people. I would've preferred a focus conducted in a more linear, "rise to fame" style, but unlike most documentaries this one seems to be brewing its own suspense, especially for someone like me who didn't foresee the outcome to many of these cases (I was ignorant to most news until around 2011).

Consider the segment Marcus devotes to Breitbart trying to prove the mainstream media wrong when they claimed that racial epithets were shouted at Congressman John Lewis by Tea Party protesters when he walked through the nation's Capital. Breitbart, who analyzed several videos taken from protesters from several different angles, offered $100,000 to the United Negro College Fund if they could provide that this was true. It never came to fruition and this, if anything, woke people up to the thought that Breitbart was more than a self-proclaimed "biased ***hole,* but a man driven to dig up the real, indispensable truth.

I suppose another reason why he obtained such a large cult following was just the commonality he shared with so many of his followers. He didn't seem like a well-to-do man who put himself on the frontline to make a buck first and expose an institution second. He states in a casually-conducted interview that he has "two car payments and a mortgage he can't pay." It didn't seem to people that he was in it for the fame and wealth but the fact that he believed that a transparent government was what the people needed and deserved. I couldn't agree more.

Hating Breitbart is a good documentary that, while neglecting the critical side of Breitbart like we kind of expected, illustrates terrifically why he was so controversial, loved, adored, hated, and talked about. The film plays like one of the most exciting journalistic crime dramas ever to hit the screen. It shows the fiery and unmistakably brutal routes the first amendment granted the American people with, and the extreme controversy that surrounded whistleblowing journalism. Regardless whether it's a conservative, religious school or a creative-minded, liberal arts institution, I'd call this documentary a must in English courses just for the value in its depictions of bravery and deviance.

I always thought that if the conservatives wanted to put themselves ahead in the game in terms of getting their ideology out in a catchy way, rather than hiring the interchangeable talking head on Fox News, they could find someone like Bill Maher, who can recite talking points with not just a spin but a witty sense of humor. It turns out that, up until 2012, the conservatives had their guy, only he went a lot further. Rather than joking and making sly remarks on his TV show, he went out to try and prove that what he was saying was correct and what we were being fed was categorically wrong. In a way, both men are just trying to show the same country a set of "new rules."

Starring: Andrew Breitbart. Directed by: Andrew Marcus.

Extremely informative. I was fortunate enough to be at the premiere in DC. It was a great event and I got to speak to many people in the film afterwards at the reception. This made it all the more memorable since I was able to ask about their associations with Breitbart.

This film touches on some powerful issues with new media and how Breitbart managed to destroy ACORN, union leaders and Congressman Weiner. He also manages to show the liberal media bias, and it shows how they misrepresent his every word. Keith Oberman's loathing for him surprised me.

There were moments in the film where Breitbart seemed extreme and this compromised his image, but by sticking to straightforward truths and his accomplishments his credibility was preserved. The film shows us that he will leave a legacy, that many will aspire to fill in new media. It's a shame we lost him when we did because someone always needs to stir the pot, and he was quite good at it.